Setters
originated in Great Britain in the 1600s from different pointing
dogs, but it is only in the 1800s that the Laverack strain prevailed
over the other families.

Laverack
period. Sir Edward Laverack
(1798-1877) can be considered the father of the English and Llewellin
setters. Laverack started his kennel with Ponto and Old Moll and
using inbreeding for more generations fixed a family of setters
that became the most famous in UK.

Llewellin
period. A young Richard Purcell Llewellin (1840-1925) got
some Laverack dogs and with two other dogs, Dan and Dick (with Gordon
blood), followed the same inbreeding method of selection of Laverack.
His dogs soon became the best in field trials. They were so famous
that several of them were sold in America (Bruce, Count Noble, Gladstone
). And it is in USA and Canada that the Llewellin was first recognized
as a separeted breed. In 1902 the FDSB started
to register Llewellins as a separate breed from the other setters.
This did not happen in Europe. When the official registration of
the dogs began, Llewellin used two names: Dashing in honour of Dash
2nd , one of the last dog bred by Laverack and Wind'em in honour
of Count Wind'em. From Dash 2nd and Countess Bear was generated
Bondhu (in Welsh "heart of oak") who became a field trial
champion and in honour of Bondhu Llewellin called all his dogs Dashing
…Bondhu (almost all Laverack blood) or Wind'em (about 50%
Laverack blood) In this way Llewellin created two Llewellin families,
even if with a lot of similar blood
Humphrey period. William Humphrey (1883-1963) lived in
England and went on to keep pure the Llewellin lines: Dashing Bondhu
and Wind'em. Humphrey, for a short period used the Hosford name
for his dogs, later he got the name Dashing Bondhu and Wind'em.
He produced 41 field trial champions. Some dogs of Humphrey went
to South Africa to the kennel of Mr. Trevor Wostenholms.

Other breeders.Father
Bannon in Ireland and M.lle Marie Therese a
Goes in Belgium went on to select pure Llewellins. Father
Bannon used the name Scinn Amach to identify the Dashing Bondhu
line and Cloncurragh for the Wind'em line. When in 1963 Humphrey
died the official name Dashing Bondhu and Wind'em went to M.lle
Marie Therese a Goes and to the Father Bannon's housekeeper. The
Belgian Wind'em became Wind'em d' Hurlain Prè.

In
Italy. Several field setters were imported from Great
Britain, and Italy became the European country with more setters
(more than 15000 new puppies are registered in the LOI, the Italian
stud book). Also pure Llewellins
were imported, but no breeder kept pure the race. I know that only Marzio Panattoni selects a family of pure Llewellins
since 1972. Some Llewellins were imported by Giorgio Morsiani
at the end of 1980s from South Africa from Mr. Trevor Wostenholms
( Rockford Josh Wind'em and others) and
from America from Mr. Glen Roark (Highland
Ambassador Bondhu ).

It is Interesting that the "European rule"
mandates that when a component of the Dashing Bondhu or Scinn Amach
families is mated with a Wind'em or a Cloncurragh the new borns
loose the original name and become a Wind'em or a Cloncurragh.